Gallery Learner Series 4/2008
JUDITH MASON: a prospect of icons
A learner resource on the art of Judith Mason
By Philippa Hobbs and Emile Maurice, with contributions from Nhlanhla Ngwenya
About Judith Mason
Judith Mason was born in Pretoria in 1938. She studied at the University
of the Witwatersrand in the 1950s, obtaining a BA Degree in Fine Art in
1960. Her first solo show was held in 1964.
While Mason’s work draws extensively
on religion, it is also informed by
her exploration of mythological
creatures. Animals like the leopard,
hyena, ape and monkey feature
widely in Mason’s work, and one
understanding of them is that they
symbolise our lower instincts. These
creatures are represented in works like
Resurrection at the Taxidermy (1999)
and Leopard of Delight (1965).
Another important feature of
Mason’s work is the fusion she
creates between beauty and
ugliness: a beautifully drawn or
painted face often gives way to
a gaping, snarling monster.
This, according to the curator of
the exhibition, Wilhelm van
Rensburg, ‘is no other than an
expression of how awful pain is.’
In the 1970s and 80s Mason was highly visible in the South African art
world at a time when the country was isolated both politically and culturally
from the rest of the world. Even so, she was chosen to represent South
Africa at the Venice Biennale, and at international art fairs, like Art Basel.
In the early 1990s Mason returned from living and teaching in Florence,
Italy. At this time, her work became part of the South African school and
university curricula and she also taught history of art, drawing and painting
at the Michaelis School of Art, University of Cape Town.
Judith Mason
Mason is still prolific well into in the 21st century and is represented in
major public collections in South Africa, as well as in collections in Europe,
the USA and Australia. Her public commissions include tapestries in
collaboration with Marguerite Stephens for The Royal Hotel in Durban, and
stained-glass window designs for the Great Park Synagogue in Johannesburg.
Apart from producing a large body of work over the decades, Mason has
published her work in books, sometimes in collaboration with poets.
She lives and work in South Africa, and has a studio in the United States
of America.
This work was partly inspired by a story Mason heard on the radio in
1995, at the time of the Truth and Reconciliation hearings. It was about
the execution of a liberation-movement cadre, Phila Ndwandwe, who
the security police tortured and kept naked for ten days, before assassinating her in a kneeling position. Before Ndwandwe was killed, she made
a pair of panties for herself out of a piece of blue plastic. Later, when
Ndwandwe’s naked body was discovered in a shallow grave, the thin
piece of plastic still covered her private parts. The first part of the title
refers to another cadre, Herold Sefola, who asked to sing Nkosi Sikelel’
iAfrica before he was executed.
Mason’s story
The Man who Sang and the Woman who kept Silent
Standard Bank Gallery,
Corner Simmonds and Frederick streets, Johannesburg.
Hours: Monday – Friday 8am to 4.30pm. Saturdays 9am to 1pm.
Tel: 011 631 1889 Fax: 011 636 7515
www.standardbankgallery.co.za.
Acknowledgements: The authors wish to thank Wilhelm van Rensburg
and Judith Mason, as well as the Standard Bank team: Mandie van der
Spuy, Barbara Freemantle, Nhlanhla Ngwenya, Jo-Anne Maris, Sue Isaac
and Dianne Graney; and Jo-Anne Duggan at the Heritage Agency.
Published by the Standard Bank Gallery, 2008. No part of this resource
may be reproduced without permission of the publisher.
SBSA 707161
Note on assessment: We recommend that teachers develop assessment activities based on this learning experience. Assessment ensures that
learners integrate and apply knowledge and skills. It also provides teachers with indications of achievement. When assessment is focused, say in
the form of continuous feedback over a year, learners understand more clearly what they are required to know. Self-assessment helps learners
set personal goals, evaluate performance and build self-confidence. Peer assessment encourages a sense of responsibility. When planning an
assessment programme, school teachers need to refer to Learning Outcomes and Standards for the Visual Arts, as envisaged in the National
Curriculum Statement
Judith Mason, Tombs of the Pharaohs of Johannesburg (triptych), 1987. Mixed media.
Collection: Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg. Photo: Justin James
Judith Mason is one of South Africa’s most renowned artists. Her latest exhibition,
A prospect of icons, is testimony to a lifetime with art. It includes paintings,
drawings, installations and artist’s books. The title is taken from an essay by Mason,
in which she discusses the use of religious imagery in painting, an important feature
of her own work, particularly with regard to Christianity and eastern religions.
Mason’s work, which is sometimes
informed by poetry, includes
numerous self-portraits, as well as
reflections on socio-political issues,
such as homeless people, street
children, HIV/Aids, abortion, war
mongering and the politics of
conflict under apartheid.
One of these works is an
engrossing assemblage
of found objects and
painted images – Tombs
of the Pharaohs of Johannesburg
(1986), a response to Johannesburg
and its mining history.
This educational supplement accompanies the exhibition A prospect of icons. In it, artworks are explored by means of thought-provoking questions, fact files, glossary words
and practical projects. Discussion topics help learners to develop a critical attitude to art, rather than just a grasp of media, style, subject matter and theme. The questions
also refer learners to other African and European art styles, drawing on previous booklets in the Gallery Learner Series. This text booklet is designed primarily for grade 10 - 12
learners, but is easily adapted for younger learners. It is designed to be a stand-alone reference on Judith Mason, beyond the exhibition that it accompanies.
The exhibition A prospect of icons is on view at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, from 2 October – 6 December 2008.
Sister, a plastic bag may not be the whole armour of God, but you were wrestling with
flesh and blood, and against powers, against the rulers of darkness, against spiritual
wickedness in sordid places. Your weapons were your silence and a piece of rubbish.
Finding that bag and wearing it until you were disinterred is such a frugal, common-sensical,
house-wifey thing to do …
FACT FILE
The Randlords
The Randlords were powerful European entrepreneurs who controlled the South African diamond and gold mining industries in their
early stages from the 1870s to World War 1. In order to maximise their profits, they supported legislation, like job reservation laws,
that forced Africans into a cheap labour pool. Some notable Randlords include Sir Abe Bailey, Barney Barnato, Samuel Marks,
Maximilian Michaelis, Sir Lionel Phillips and Cecil John Rhodes. Their architectural patronage left behind a legacy across South
Africa. Florence Phillips, wife of Sir Phillips, championed the establishment of the Johannesburg Art Gallery.
(Judith Mason’s text on the dress in The Man who Sang and the Woman who kept Silent )
The Truth and Reconciliation
Commission
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission
was established in 1995 to investigate
human rights abuses in South Africa
between 1960 and 1994. Anyone who
considered himself or herself to have
been a victim of political violence during
this period could appear before the
Commission. Perpetrators of violence
could also give testimony, and apply for
amnesty against prosecution. The idea
behind the Commission was that South
Africa had to deal with its past before it
could begin a new chapter in its history.
The Commission concluded that both the
apartheid government and the liberation
movement were guilty of atrocities.
2. Now read the story behind this work
(at the back of this booklet). How do
your own interpretations differ from
Mason’s? How do they all add interest
to your experience of the artwork?
3. What parts of the story has Mason
shown, and not shown? Why do you
think she has done this?
4. What different feelings do the real
dress and the picture of the dress give
you?
5. What is beautiful and what is ugly in
The Man who Sang and the Woman
who kept Silent? What feels familiar
and what seems alien?
6. What are your ideas about beauty and
ugliness in art?
7. Canine and feline animals constantly
appear in Mason’s work. How does
she construct these animals? List the
materials, body parts, colours, patterns
and facial expressions, for example.
8. Find out about some of the attitudes
people have to hyenas, leopards and
dogs. What do you think these
creatures represent?
Judith Mason, The Man who Sang and the Woman who kept Silent (triptych), 1998. Mixed media. Collection: Constitutional Court
Judith Mason, Leopard of Delight, 1965. Oil on board.
Collection: The Pretoria Art Museum
FACT FILE
FACT FILE
1. Study Mason’s triptych (or three-part)
artwork, The Man who Sang and the
Woman who kept Silent, and invent
a story for it. Share your different
interpretations with your group.
Assemblage
This art form is a three-dimensional equivalent of a collage. The process
involves making sculpture or relief work by assembling pre-formed
objects and materials that were not originally manufactured for the
purposes of art making. Artists such as Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and
Georges Braque (1882-1963) were pioneers of assemblage, working in
this mode from 1913 onwards. Some contemporary South African artists
who use this approach are Willem Boshoff (1951- ), Pat Mautloa (1952- ),
Usha Seejarim (1974- ) and Willie Bester (1952- ).
Judith Mason, Resurrection at the Taxidermy, 1999.
Oil on board. Private collection
9. Mason also uses a triptych (three-part) format in Tombs of the Pharaohs
of Johannesburg. How do you think this format influences the way we
‘read’ artworks like these?
10. Find out about legends, ritual celebrations and histories about Egyptian
pharaohs.
11. Think about some legends and ritual celebrations in your own community
or family.
12. How could you work with some of these ideas in your own artworks? Draw
some of your thoughts in your workbook.
13. Tombs of the Pharaohs of Johannesburg is a work Mason made about the
Randlords of Johannesburg. What do you think she tells us about these early
mining magnates when she compares them to ancient Egyptian royalty?
14.What ideas can you see about death, the preservation
of dead people, or the way different cultures
represent death? Ask your life skills group to give you
some more ideas.
15.How does Mason use assemblage to make her
messages more powerful? How could her work
remind us of artworks from different cultures, such
as Minkisi power figures from central Africa, or Pablo
Picasso’s Head of a Woman (Olga Picasso)?
16.How could Tombs of the Pharaohs of Johannesburg
show some different art styles and traditions? To help
you, look also at other booklets in the Gallery Learner
Series, such as those on Cecil Skotnes (3/2008) and
Christine Dixie (3/2007).
17.Make a list of all the objects you see in Mason’s works
that could be symbolic. Talk about how these could
stand for different ideas and experiences. For example,
what could the images of chicken feet mean? Or the
braziers? What about the nails?
18.How could you develop
some symbols of your own
in your artwork? Sketch
some ideas in your workbook to use as a resource
in future.
19.Think about Mason’s
exhibition title, A prospect
of icons. How has Mason
turned figures such as Phila
Ndwandwe, the Randlords
and Ghandi into icons?
What kind of icons are they?
How are Mason’s icons
Artist unknown, Yombe.
similar or different from
Power figure. DRC or
other icons in art, like the
Kabinda (c. 1900) Wood,
legendary hero Shaka – the iron, shells and mixed
icon in Cecil Skotnes’s work? media
Glossary word: symbol
A form or image that represents something else,
beyond its immediate meaning.
Practical project
Judith Mason, Christ at the Column,
1965. Oil, paint, wire and cloth on
board. Collection: University of the
Witwatersrand Art Galleries Collection
Judith Mason, Gandhi, 1986. Oil on
board. Collection: Dr J P Nel
Make a garment as a memorial
Think of someone in history who could be called an
icon. What parts of their story impress you the most?
How could you create a wearable artwork that is a
memorial to this person? As you plan your work, think
about the materials or objects that would express
your ideas best. How could the garment conceal or
reveal things? Where should it be placed?
Who should wear it and when?